


for you dear, anything

by cinderlily



Category: Pod Save America (RPF)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Sappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 09:57:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13568193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderlily/pseuds/cinderlily
Summary: A slice of life in the Lovett-Favreau household wherein Favs use of words gets him in trouble.





	for you dear, anything

Usually, it was Lovett’s job to school pick up in the afternoon, Jon was good with morning drop off. He was also good with routines and balance. But Lovett had an interview on CNN, and it was something that he really couldn’t move, so he was on Doodlebug duty. 

He didn’t mind extra time with Allie and Nick. He always felt like he was catching up. At almost four, Allie was a freaking firecracker. She looked a lot like he did as a kid, even with the telltale gap between her teeth (though the dentist assured her that was just the size of her small teeth), but the attitude of Lovett. She liked to crack jokes at any chance, even if they didn’t make sense. 

Nick, being only 11 months, still had a developing personality, but from the memory of Allie, he was pretty sure Nick would be more like him. Quiet and observational. Maybe because his sibling took up a little more of the air in the room, which he understood entirely. 

“Dad, Jolie took my baby today,” Allie said with the anger only a three-year-old could have. 

“I’m sorry baby girl,” he said, his eyes focused on the idiot beside him who had had his blinker on for at least two miles and was doing nothing. “That wasn’t very nice. Did you tell Miss Laura?” 

Allie huffed, and how she didn’t share any actual DNA with Lovett astounded him. “She said I had to _share_.” 

“Well, we do have to share,” he said, and let his eyes flick to the little mirror they’d said to be able to see the backseat. “Had you been playing with it for a long time?” 

“She TOOKED IT!” 

Jon slipped his eyes back to the road and tried to hide his smile. “It’s ‘took,’ Allie. She _took_ it. But it’s the school’s toy, and you do have to share—- FUCK!” 

He swerved to the left, thankfully not into the SUV next to them but just barely, as the dumbass with the signal _finally_ chose that moment to get into the lane. It was 6 pm in LA, and there wasn’t much room for wiggle. He smacked the wheel. He drove in DC, and he still marveled at the stupidity of LA drivers. 

Allie’s loud voice came from the back of the car. “Fuck?” 

His eyes widened. He looked over his shoulder and saw Allie looking at him with wide eyes and a half smile like she knew that it was a bad word. “Allison Taylor, that is a bad word we don’t use.” 

“You said it,” she said, her head tilted. “What is it?” 

Jon's eyes went back to the road, partially because self-driving cars hadn’t actually been implemented for his use but mainly because he had no right answer in this situation. He and Lovett had agreed to curb language around them, and Lovett had so far been immaculate. Jon had… well. Fucked up a lot. The first two years of her life she mostly didn’t notice, but he’d had to crack down once her second birthday hit and she started parroting at him. 

“It means…” 

He could do this. He was a freaking professional writer. He had a fantastic vocabulary, and he worked on it daily. There was nothing in his brain. Not a single word other than ‘fuck fuck fuck’ on repeat like a pulse. 

Allie was not the most patient of children, which said a lot. “What, Daddy?”

“Fornication Under Consent of the King,” he blurted out. Great, now he was LYING to his child. That was brilliant. 

Allie, in the mirror, was looking dead at him, like she knew. “For the cation of the King?” 

“Yeah, but it’s a grown-up word, Allie,” he said. “We don’t use it _ever_.” 

“EVER?” 

He nodded his head. “Not ever ever. Especially not at school or with Babba.”

Lord, if Lovett knew he was the one to slip, he would never hear the end of it. He would have to give up and move to Canada. He would rather she say it at school, though that would still get back to him. Maybe he could blame it on Tommy. Tommy was around them enough and Rory had undoubtedly heard a curse or two, even if she was only a little older than Nick. Which, gave him an out. 

“How is Nicky doing?” he said, desperate for distraction. 

“He sleeping.” 

Jon bit down on another curse. A six o’clock nap would mean he was either up till who knew when or he was going to be up at the crack of dawn. Even as a morning person he wasn’t a great morning person when it came to a screaming kid. 

“Daddy, where is the King going on cation?” 

His eyebrows furrowed before he remembered her idea of what fuck meant and he blinked. “Timbuktu, honey. He’s going to Timbuktu.” 

“Thas silly, Daddy,” she giggled, and hell her giggle was something to bottle for bad days. She seemed to let it go. He was grateful when she went on a peel about her My Little Ponies at home and the adventures they were having without her. 

* 

By the time that Lovett got home, Jon had fed and bathed the kids, put together lunches for them for the next day, and cleaned all of Nick’s bottles. He’d woken up cranky, the Lovett showing through, and it took him whirling in circles for ten minutes to calm him enough to get him to take dinner. Even still he was cranky as the night led on, and he would admit to being on edge when he the door opened. 

“BABBA!” Allie screamed. “Babba! I missed you!” 

Her voice made the slightly calm Nick let out a shrill of displeasure. 

Lovett tilted his head. “What a welcome.” 

Jon, who’d been on the floor desperately attempting to amuse the two for the last ten minutes before bed, got up and grabbed Nicky to do a little bit of bouncing. “You’re home. Where was this studio, San Jose?” 

“Ugh, no,” Lovett sighed, Allie suddenly in his arms. “The guy wanted me to agree with him SO BAD he kept talking after it was off air.” They leaned in around their kids and kissed. 

“Babba stoooooppppp,” Allie said, and they pulled apart. “ _JOLIE TOOK MY BABY._ ” 

Lovett frowned and looked around. “What? Just now? Is she a terribly named ninja now?” 

Allie giggled. “NO, at schooool.” 

“Yes, Allie-gator, and we talked about sharing in the car,” Jon said, feeling as Nick’s head landed on his shoulder. It was going to be the falling asleep and waking up the way too early route, joy. 

“He fall asleep in the car again?” Lovett pointed at Nick. “Cause he is about four seconds from shut down mode.” 

“Honestly? If he wants to, let him. He did sleep in the car and woke up as you on an early morning flight.” 

Lovett gave him a _look_ , but Jon shrugged it off. He got that look often when he pointed out the truth. 

“I’ll take him up to his room, and you want to take her?” 

Lovett looked at Allie and made a face. “Take you? _You_. No way. I don’t want an Allie-gator in my daughter’s bed.” 

Allie put her hands on either side of her father’s face. “But I **am** Allie-gator, Babba, I AM Allie. So I go in _my bed_.” 

“Well, I _guess_.” Lovett winked at Jon. 

Jon took Nick into the kitchen to grab a bottle and go to his nursery. It had taken a lot of work on Jon’s behalf, but he’d convinced Lovett to allow him a Sox-themed room. A big Green Monster on one wall and his bed covering being home plate. It was not so secretly his favorite room in the house. 

“Okay, Nicky, take the bottle and for the love of g-d give me till 5:30 tomorrow morning,” he said, as he sat in the green fabric rocker. “I swear, I’ll take you to every single Dodgers vs. Sox game ever if you just give me till 5:30.” 

Nick perked up slightly as the bottle neared his mouth, hand going out to grab it. Jon decided to take that as a good omen. He hummed something he’d heard on the radio, some pop tune that he knew Allie could probably sing all the way through but he remembered a quarter of the chorus. Nick made it through almost all of the bottle, nearly, and though the last half an ounce might haunt them he conceded defeat. He placed his son in the bed and set the Sonos nearby to play white noise. 

He got into the hallway just in time to hear very loud and raucous laughter coming from Allie’s room. He tiptoed down the hall, as he always loved peering in and saw Allie and Lovett being silly together, Lovett had been so hesitant to be a father, but Jon thought he wasn’t biased when he thought Lovett had turned out amazing. 

As he got closer to the slightly ajar door he got a little anxious as he heard Allie’s voice. 

“TIMBUKTU. He went to Timbuktu, Babba.” 

There was a peel of laughter from them both, though he knew that it was for two very different reasons. He went through the possibilities that maybe Allie couldn’t convey what she’d said. Really, for the cation of the King could be anything, and it wasn’t even an actual fact. He felt the stab of guilt through him but still peeked around the corner. 

Lovett was bright red, Allie was looking like the cat that caught the canary. She was always so pleased to get a laugh, but a laugh from her Babba was the best thing on earth to her. Even when she was little, she looked at Lovett like he hung the moon by himself. He figured that was his DNA shining through. 

After a minute or two of laughing subsided to the pitter of giggling, Lovett wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. 

“Okay, Allison Taylor, time to go on our wild trip. Where would you like to go tonight?” 

Allie put a finger to her lip and looked up. It was something her Uncle Tommy had taught her and was over the top sweet if a bit annoying when she did it for ten minutes while thinking of what she wanted for lunch. “I want to go to Timbuktu.” 

Lovett let out a laugh. “Okay, Timbuktu it is. We can ride a green canoe.” 

“PURPLE.” 

“Okay, purple it is,” Lovett said. “Don’t forget the snacks, you know I get hungry on our trips.” 

Allie nodded sagely as she wiggled down under the covers and Lovett got out of bed. “I won’t.” 

“I will meet you there,” he said and leaned over to kiss her forehead. He tucked the sheets up tight around her, the way she always liked it. “Love you, Allie.” 

“Love you Babba,” she said, and then let out a yawn. It had been a long day for them all. 

Jon realized about four seconds too late that Lovett was coming straight at him and he’d been caught in the act. There was a Cheshire cat grin on Lovett’s face, and he raised an eyebrow. Jon attempted to go for relaxed and innocent, but as always Lovett saw through his bull shit. He turned off the light, and they both looked back one more time at Allie, bathed in her hideous pink cat night light. 

Lovett took Jon by the hand and lead them down the hallway and back into the kitchen area. He opened the fridge and took a couple of hard ciders out, handing one to Jon. 

“Fornication under the consent of the King is total bullshit, you know that right?” 

Jon blushed as they both sat on the stools at the counter. “Yeah, I think I got that.” 

“You said _Fuck_ in front of our three-year-old,” Lovett smiled around his bottle. 

Jon shrugged a shoulder guilty. “Well, both kids were there. Nick was asleep though.” 

“Oh good, you add the one-year-old in the mix.” 

 

“He was asleep,” Jon pointed out, voice possibly rising a little much. “And hasn’t started to use language beyond Da and Ba.” 

“Well, good, at least all he has to worry about is learning it from his sister down the line,” Lovett said, continuing to drink his cider and shaking his head. “I’ll be honest, Jon… I thought you’d break a long time ago.” 

Jon sipped at the cider and frowned. “Gee, your faith in me is encouraging.” 

“I mean, I only made it what… six months?” 

It took a second for the words to process before he turned entirely in his chair to see the smirk spreading. “Six months? You broke first?” 

“Remember when she was REALLY excited about the new shirt she got?” 

That was over a year ago. Jon had gone to do an interview over a weekend, and when he’d gotten back, Allie was quite insistent about her shirt. She’d possibly said the word a dozen times. 

“Holy fuck, you said shit!” 

Lovett finally broke, laughing long and hard. “It was just before Nicky was born, and I was so nervous I dropped my phone into the sink, I might have said shit a dozen times. When I realized what had happened, I just bought her some new clothes and told her that I said, ‘SHIRT.’ Thankfully two-year-old’s don’t question why I’d scream I was buying her shirts.” 

“Almost four-year-olds are hard to distract,” Jon sighed. “I should have tried for truck…” 

Lovett was still laughing, covering his mouth and sighing. “No way, For the Vacation of the King is going in her wedding speech. It would be at her bat mitzvah, but other parents are picky.” 

The image of Lovett saying it at a wedding, suited up and giggling, was enough to set him off even if he still felt guilty and a little annoyed that Lovett hadn’t told him.

“Daddy, Babba?” Allie walked out, clutching the strand of DNA plushie she’d taken to as a kid. “What so funny?” 

Jon got up and leaned down near his daughter. “Sorry, Allie. Parent jokes.” 

She made a face, she rarely found them intentionally funny. “You’re loud.” 

“We’ll quiet down, but you got to get your sleep. Tomorrow is a Dance Party,” he said. It was a requisite for any weekend day. 

She smiled. “Taylor Swift?” 

He nodded and hid his sigh. “Yeah, yeah. Taylor Swift.” 

He led her down the hallway, back into her room and into her bed. 

“Love you, Doodle Bug.” 

“Daddy? Is the King really going to Timbuktu?” 

His face went red. He missed the brief period that she forgot things quickly. Now she held on to things with a vice grip. 

“Yeah, and you and Babba will be there too, right? In a purple canoe.” 

She smiled. “Yeah. You can come, too.” 

“And Nick?” 

“I guess he can come,” she sighed and rolled over on her tummy. He scratched her back, before getting up and walking back out to the hallway to find Lovett taking his turn at eavesdropping. 

“So now your sniping on my daughter dates?” 

Jon kissed him softly on the lips. “You get her most nights. I just figured we’d go on a family one tonight.” 

“Maybe we can try a real family vacation soon,” Lovett said. “You know, to Timbuktu.” ;

“An endangered city in an insecure area of Africa?” 

Lovett singsonged. “I’d do anything for you… Go to Timbuktu and back again…” 

“Cultural reference?” 

“How are you even HALF Gay and never heard _Oliver!_?” Lovett sighed, kissing him again. “Grab your cider; I have to teach you everything.” 

He ended up falling asleep halfway through, but it was worth it when Lovett woke him up with a kiss to go to bed.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a bit of a verse built in my head for Allie and Nick, plus their youngest sibling TBN. It all stems from Lovett's conversation with Norman Leer and my inability to be in ANY verse without giving them kids at least once.
> 
> Also, my wife left on a week-long trip to Romania for work so I'm feeling emotional and sappy. I apologize in advance.


End file.
